The question is this: Choosing one poet, one poem, or one
kind of poetry, what would I be most interested in seeing a modern version of?
That… is a very good question. Well, I just looked through
all of the samplers again, and I have to say, the one poem that stood out to me
the most was Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” I liked that one. I
read it aloud the first time because I wanted to force myself to pay attention,
and then I read it through again, and then I glanced over a summary on Wikipedia
before I felt like I finally understood it. I think that what made me like it
the most was the fantastic plot—and I mean fantastic in the literal scene. I
mean, it’s got sailors, and the South Pole, and gigantic birds, and Death
personified, and slimy sea creatures, and angels, and zombies, and curses. Now that’s a good story! Nothing we’ve read
since then has seemed to me to have such a fantastic story, and I think I’d
like to see poetry that told that kind of story nowadays—but preferably with clearer
language, because “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is somewhat impenetrable
without help.
On a related note, the first three Pirates of the Caribbean
movies are some of my very favorites (in fact, whenever people ask me what my
favorite movie is, I usually say Curse of the Black Pearl). I had never read “The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner” before this class, so I had no idea how much Pirates
is referencing that poem. My appreciation of those movies has definitely
increased now that I can see all the connections.
